Curly
like a pigtail, bulbed like a phallus, green as a rain-swept
lawn, the flowering stalk of the garlic plant is a luscious,
unusual addition to your dinner table. Find some, cook them,
enjoy them, and soon, like me, you’ll be impelled to try to
grow them. Unlike many of my gardening pursuits, the garlic
crop I put in last fall grew spectacularly well and just yielded
a bounty of those stalks, known as scapes, which I harvested
last week. I’ve been experimenting with different preparations
and sharing these creations with friends; and because you
weren’t able to share the delicacy at my table, I offer the
following.

You know garlic, of course, as the spicy, pungent partner
of just about everything short of dessert, and, even then,
you haven’t truly experienced its flavor until you’ve tried
garlic ice cream. Garlic is part of the onion family (Alliaceae)
and carries its own moniker, Allium sativum. What we’re
looking at is a variety known as hardneck garlic (or top-setting
garlic, or serpent garlic), which is where you’ll find the
coiling scape stalk.

Let’s dive into The Complete Book of Garlic by Ted
Jordan Meredith (Timber Press), where we learn:

“The
scape supports the inflorescence, called an umbel. As is typical
of aliums, the umbel constitutes garlic’s flowering parts
with the numerous flowers connected at a common point and
forming a globe shape. Within the umbel numerous bulbils grow
among its flowers, ranging in size from a grain of rice to
a sugar pea. Depending on the cultivar, the umbel may contain
several to more than a hundred bulbils. Bulbils are like miniature
garlic cloves, and like cloves, they can be planted and eventually
develop into bulbs.”

The challenge for the scape fan is to pluck them off the stalk
at the right moment for maximum flavor and tenderness. Ideally,
this is before the tendril starts curling, which gives you
the stalk at its most tender—but then you have a short, short-lived
scape. I like to pick them when the scapes have started to
curl, with the more ambitious of them performing a full circle
or more. The curve is a product of irregular cell growth,
and it eventually evens out, producing a fat umbel on a straight,
stiff stalk. So you want to grab them before they uncurl.

Much of the stalk is too tough to chew raw, but only a light
measure of cooking is required to tenderize the tendril. Trim
the very top, the tip of which may be browning, and, at the
opposite end, cut off any part of the stalk that’s still significantly
yellow. If the scape is still very long, you might want to
halve it for easier serving. Steaming is the most straightforward
preparation; season with a little salt and pepper. More complexity
is revealed if you give the scapes a quick sautée instead
of or in addition to steaming. There’s a strong temptation
(in my house at least) to add butter. Resist it. The flavor
is amazing without it. Tease out the richest flavor potential
by grilling your scapes. Marinate them in a little olive oil
and balsamic vinegar, give them appropriate grill-top time
(flip them once), and you’ll have something even better than
fresh grilled asparagus, in large part because scapes have
their own built-in garlic flavor.

For eye appeal, decorate the presentation dish with a contrasting
color. I made a batch recently that I finished with roasted
red peppers tossed with chopped anchovies. And save the bits
you trimmed off. There’s an excellent pesto waiting when you
combine them with parmesan cheese and pine nuts in a little
olive oil.

Although scapes are a short-season delicacy, they store well,
especially if you pick them while they’re curly. Refrigerate
them in an airtight container and you’ll get a few weeks out
of them. Or pickle them. You need nothing fancier than good
vinegar, into which you’ll plunge your steamed scapes. Hot
peppers? I’ll add some, thanks. Can them, store them—plunge
into them in midwinter.

Picking scapes has the added benefit of strengthening the
bulb, which gets the growth energy that would otherwise have
been directed elsewhere. Unfortunately, scapes have only recently
been added to the nouvelle American diet, so they’re not always
easy to find (and it’s horrible to think of them mulching
away).

Tempted to do some planting? Start by talking to other growers.
One of the country’s oldest garlic festivals takes place July
24-26 in Gilroy, Calif., an event that gave birth to the Stinking
Rose Restaurant in San Francisco’s North Beach (and now with
a branch in Beverly Hills, thank you very much). That’s where
you’ll taste your garlic ice cream. Closer to home, the Hudson
Valley Garlic Festival takes place in Saugerties on Sept.
26 and 27 (hvgf.org).

And if you want a scape fix right now, try your local farmer’s
markets. “We don’t have any in stock right now,” said Honest
Weight Food Co-op’s Karen Starr when I spoke with her earlier
this week. “We rely on local growers to provide them, so it’s
really a matter of when somebody shows up with them.”

Remember
Saratoga’s 4x4 dinners? Founding chef Mark Graham,
formerly of the Wine Bar in that city, is now
helming Mezza Notte in Albany and is reviving
the tradition with fellow Capital Region chefs
Larry Schepici of Tosca, Jackie Baldwin of RPI,
and Jamie Ortiz of 677 Prime. Capital Region
Chefs 4x4 will present four monthly dinners
starting in July, rotating among the restaurants
but with all four chefs contributing to each meal.
And each dinner includes an amuse bouche, four
courses, and a wine pairing for each course at
$70 per person. The first event takes place July
27 at MezzaNotte (2026 Western Ave, Albany, 689-4433,
mezzanottealbany.com). The menu includes Alaskan
prawns with toasted almond gnocchi (Chef Jamie),
carpaccio of Creek’s Edge Farm elk (Chef Larry),
stuffed rabbit loin with rabbit sweetbread terrine
(Chef Mark), and Local Strawberries with coconut-white
chocolate sauce and pecan madelines (Chef Jackie).
The Tosca dinner takes place Aug. 20, Angelo’s
677 Prime is Sept. 17, and Oct. 17 is the date
for the dinner at RPI. For more information, visit
chefs4x4.com. . . . Remember to pass your scraps
to Metroland.